Physical Resources

Physical resources

Within physical resources there are many points which must be taken into account to ensure a business is at its peak, these include things such as materials, waste, insurance, equipment including ICT, buildings and facilities, planned maintenance and refurbishment, security, plant and machinery. These particular resources are what help maintain physically the resources in a business.

Materials

Materials are regularly used within workplaces this is to help encourage new customers from making the shops attractive encouraging customer participation. In every Apple store you walk into will contain Apple products designed to conveniently provide focus on what’s on sale.

Materials within Apple are usually aimed to be environmentally friendly, and encourage that older products are reused.

However everything within stores is designed specifically to relate to Apple products the first thing that strikes a visitor is the very white floor and the backlit ceiling.

The floor is white epoxy, apparently covered with a clear epoxy layer, giving it the appearance of an iMac G5 case.

A lot of essential materials are needed day to day, these include stationary books, equipment etc.

Due to Apples stores make sales a lot of paper work

Waste

Waste is usually produced from large companies, and is unwanted or unusable materials, although this can be inaccurate because some forms of waste may be recyclable therefore can be reused to produce further product.

Get quality help now
Dr. Karlyna PhD
Dr. Karlyna PhD
checked Verified writer

Proficient in: Copyright

star star star star 4.7 (235)

“ Amazing writer! I am really satisfied with her work. An excellent price as well. ”

avatar avatar avatar
+84 relevant experts are online
Hire writer

Apple is determined to be as environmentally friendly as possible they quote “we are constantly developing new ways to conserve the resources we all share.” Over 90 per cent of material they recycle is from products other than our own.

Apple has gone to many extents to reduce the amount of waste they produce.

By reducing the use of aluminium from each and every product, over the past decade Apple designers and engineers have continued to pioneer new ways to build their products with less material.

Get to Know The Price Estimate For Your Paper
Topic
Number of pages
Email Invalid email

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

"You must agree to out terms of services and privacy policy"
Write my paper

You won’t be charged yet!

By maintaining this they have shown to save up to 74 per cent less aluminium and steel than the previous design. And the newest iMac is made with 68 per cent less material than the first iMac. Apple is always of a high standard they strive to keep their buildings clean, by encouraging regular removal of waste this prevents any building up of waste.

Insurance

This is the financial protection that anyone can be reimbursed against losses of an insurance company. This contract policy which a person makes regular payments to a company and the company promises to pay money if the person is injured or dies, or to pay money equal to the value of something (such as a house or car) if it is damaged, lost, or stolen. Insurance is very important within a business although there are many types of insurance such as third parties and comprehensive, business tend to include insurance for their products, such as Apple care this is used by Apple to promote customer satisfaction generally people want their personal items protected, it’s where you pay a small monthly sum to Apples insurance company, in which covers your product, although depending on damage done to product costs can vary from paying nothing a large amount. Some insurance such as public liability insurance must be paid by employers to cover any payments to the public for injuries, or property damages as a result of the business.

Equipment including IT

IT is used almost every day, and comes with essential equipment’s from desks to put them on to engineers to fix them; Apples Company is based around IT equipment must be provided to make the work easier for the employees. Things such as a desk to put either a computer or laptop is needed so that a comfortable workplace is made for the workers a lot of things are needed like paper, pencils, and pens etc. When equipment needs fixing an engineer is needed to make sure all IT equipment is in working order. Suitable equipment makes jobs for people easier and will most likely be found with working staff for a specific job. By constantly updating new software better technology can be used this provides faster service for customer and easier serving for the employee.

Building and Facilities

All businesses have premises from where it can operate, it can start from a home to a large building tower, usually the expenses of the premises are depending on how successful the company/business may become.

Buildings and facilities helps development within businesses to increase at rapid speeds, the more there products able to be sold at one time, Apple has 424 retail stores in 16 countries and an online store available in 39 countries. By increasing their facilities and buildings more profit can be made, also more stock is available this provides more investments for further development. Measures can be made to keep the customers wanting to return such as including a kid’s facility or even a café however an important point is increasing the number of parking spaces this means more people are able to drive to the buildings. Staff needs also have to be focused placing staff rooms on make sure that they are happy and working at their full potential and are able to take breaks.

Planned maintenance and refurbishment

Planned maintenance can help prevent any unprepared problems that a business may face; it can be from a health and safety risk to a faulty light bulb, by replacing and regular planned checks it can help businesses especially over time when equipment becomes old and unreliable refurbishments and maintenance need to be used. To entice customers is very important for organisations; by regularly updating equipment this encourages people to do new things and adapt to what is available in the modern world. By maintaining maintenance people are more likely to feel comforted and welcomed.

Modernisation is essential to adapt to the public’s wants and needs it also prevents competitors from taking over the market, by promoting more efficient equipment it is much easier for the organisation to maintain being ahead Apple constantly introduces new technology and are able to refurbish their stores as to how they feel it should look. Apple are known for their products to be simple and straight forward although sleek and pleasant to look at, they promote this within stores by using a sleek plain layout which gives customers a familiar response to the environment. It can cause customers to associate certain colours and layouts to Apples products and stores.

Security

Security is very important within a business to prevent major losses or high-level risks. Theft and other security breaches cost businesses billions of dollars each year. Apple use modern day CCTV to prevent products being stolen and by installing anti-theft scanners will assure that nothing is able to leave the store without it being scanned and paid for. Apple also takes measures when leaving displayed products for customers to view; alarm systems are setup to make sure nothing can be stolen. Access throughout shops have to be controlled Apple uses identification passes to access certain areas this is to prevent random people going to restricted areas or getting hold of products.

Plant and machinery

Plant and machinery have a huge impact on the way those different companies provide attraction and suitability for customers and staff, key things that must be included within the work place are; suitable parking for all staff and customers, up to date machinery, regular refurbishments and making sure management and products are up to date. Apple has recently purchased $578m worth of sapphire this is for future productions and developments. Apple need to constantly introduce new things to keep the consumers coming back for more, no they are able to keep more customers wanting to return to shops, by increasing larger parking facilities this allows people to drive without worrying about the car and means larger numbers of people can turn up therefore more sales can be made, however buildings at Apple contain a lot of machinery and technology that requires engineers to constantly maintain them.

http://www.stock-analysis-on.net/NASDAQ/Company/Apple-Inc/Analysis/Property-Plant-and-Equipment

Technical resources

Technical resources are what keep businesses in business. It provides protection by encouraging laws. Also allows businesses to make the right choices, technical resources include intellectual property. Accumulated experience and skills, software licences, and protection via patents and copyright each resource allows security, reliability and legality within a business.

Intellectual property

This includes the rights that people have, the protection that anyone can have over anything to do with, designs, drawings, text, music and videos this is important because in modern day these properties can easily be stolen or copied, it’s usually provided for us for free however that does not entitle it as your own. ‘Apple’s innovation is embodied in its Intellectual Property, including Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights’. Everybody has the right to their own ideas, Apple make sure their ideas are not stolen or taken by ensuring certain laws are used to protect these ideas such as Copyrights this means all of Apples products containing their own creations such as iTunes, or software such as ios8.

This protection prevents anybody from stealing these ideas Patents and copyright are two areas of intellectual law this helps companies majorly, because now competitors are unable to develop ideas similar to any patent or copy writ creations of Apple, basically meaning because you’re not working with them you’re unable to develop from these ideas as they’re not yours. This makes it difficult for competitors because now they are unable to use similar or the same software/ product with the same properties, this can mean other companies are unable to develop their due to ideas that have been copy writ or patented. https://www.apple.com/legal/intellectual-property/

Accumulated Experience and Skills

Accumulated experience and skills is very important for a business especially looking for the right person to employ, it can determine the whole business, depending on what skills and experience that person has can vary in levels from being unexperienced to being highly experienced usually the skills and experiences are gained from previous work or education.

Experience and skills within work is very important for businesses it’s usually experience gains over a number of years when a person has come across lots of different issues to do with the job. Generally businesses look for experienced workers with relevant skills, better workers means that the business is able to grow at a higher level.

Reliability can be determined by experience it’s important for businesses to rely on their employers this can save time and money. It is important for an employee to build skills although businesses must refrain from creating a situation where for instants at Apple the technician requires a certain skill however if only one person is employed with this skill it can mean if they are unavailable or leave the workplace it can cause many problems which may affect the entire organisation leading onto the ineffective function of the business. This is why it’s important for training to be cascaded, which will mean skills are passed on therefore regular replacements are easier to find.

Software licences

Software licences are a legal instrument allowing individuals or groups to use a piece of software. Nearly all applications are licenced this is a better alternative rather then for them to be sold. Organisations rely on software to create wider expansion within market software licences allow you to run the program on only one machine and to make copies only for backup purposes. It’s limited although is a very important within a business Allows you to legally distribute software within your organization as covered by the licensing agreement. Due to Apples own software they have no limitations within their software (OS), as they own all the rights to it.

Protection via patents and copyright
This is an alternative for businesses to protect technological resources due to it being costly. Legislation can protect the resources it can be sometimes difficult to prove if someone has taken your idea and used it.
Patent and copyright are both sources of intellectual law. A patent gives an inventor the legal rights to stop someone else copying or using part of their invention without permission.

All companies use patents and copyrights to protect their organisation, preventing illegal theft and making sure they’re fully protected from them. There are many different types of patents and can only apply to certain things for example machine (robot, motor, circuit) process, article of manufacture (frying pan, hair comb) composition of matter (chemical compound) design patent (ornament design, appearance) plant patent (new and distinct variety of plant) Apple rely on design patents to assure that no one is able to copy their own design e.g. Apples aluminium case and sapphire glass. This things may keep them ahead in marketing and general reputation due to its better quality competitors are unable to copy these designs as they have been patented.

References

Updated: Sep 26, 2024
Cite this page

Physical Resources. (2016, May 31). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/describe-the-main-physical-and-technolo-essay

Physical Resources essay
Live chat  with support 24/7

👋 Hi! I’m your smart assistant Amy!

Don’t know where to start? Type your requirements and I’ll connect you to an academic expert within 3 minutes.

get help with your assignment